Topper Industrial Led Global Wisconsin Based Firm through Workflow Process as Part of Lean Journey

Topper Industrial Led Global Wisconsin Based Firm through Workflow Process as Part of Lean Journey

Topper Industrial recently guided a global firm through their fork truck free lean journey. The global hydraulics client realized the benefits of minimalizing the number of fork trucks at their North American headquarters. The Lean Manufacturing & Continuous Improvement Engineer at the global hydraulics, had his team look at workflow and packaging for every part, and saw many great ergonomic advantages.

One of the most critical components in undertaking a massive change is gaining buy-in from all parties. Production, logistics, maintenance, quality, engineering and health, safety and environment are all impacted in various ways by implementing a tugger system. Therefore, the hydraulics company chose to start working with cross functional teams well before equipment was purchased to begin to plant the seed and transition the whole group along the path of thinking differently.

Since change is an emotional process, the company used different techniques to help lead the teams across the sometimes confusing and uncertain transition process. For example, representatives from the logistics team from all three shifts went on an out-of-state tour of a manufacturing facility, which had already implemented tuggers. This helped the team to imagine how the new process would work and to see the benefits first-hand, which equipped them to answer questions and concerns from co-workers on their shift.

The production, maintenance and engineering teams roughed out a scale model of the new cell with tugger carts. This allowed all parties to “feel” what the future cell would be like and to provide feedback and improvement ideas well before the new equipment even arrived. This pre-work helped to make the implementation rollout easier because people were already excited and willing to buy-in-to the system. Input and concerns were heard and addressed from the development process through and after go-live.

For more than twenty years, Topper Industrial, (www.TopperIndustrial.com) based just outside of Milwaukee, WI, has been a leader in the material handling equipment industry. The company’s product roster features industrial carts, conveyors, lifts, lifts & tilts, shipping racks, containers, casters, and cart components. From mother-daughter carts to quad steer carts to tilt carts and rotate carts, Topper’s material handling solutions make delivering material line side more effective through more efficient practices. Topper Industrial has a team of experienced professional experts able to assess and provide the right product for all material handling equipment requirements.